“This week, our family dealt with an ongoing challenge, but it’s not the one you probably heard about,” Ed and Shannon FitzGerald say in the beginning of the email. “It wasn’t about personal attacks, or personal mistakes, or gutter politics. While the political world, as usual, was focused on that kind of thing, we were focused on our oldest son, Jack.”

Later in the email, the FitzGeralds said that “while the rest of the political establishment was talking about drivers’ licenses, our focus was right where it belonged — on our family.”

Jack FitzGerald, now a student at Xavier University in Cincinnati, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma four years ago while his father was running for Cuyahoga County executive. He recently had “some symptoms that concerned” the family, but they learned on Wednesday that most test results were negative. Another test is pending.

Ed FitzGerald had avoided talking about the illness, and observers cannot recall a time when he has discussed his son’s cancer on the gubernatorial campaign trail. But aides say they learned yesterday morning that the letter was coming from the FitzGeralds.

The timing of the email raised questions about whether FitzGerald was attempting to divert attention from his damaged campaign against Republican Gov. John Kasich.

FitzGerald and the woman who was with him in the car that morning in 2012 — Joanne Grehan, of Ireland — both said nothing inappropriate happened, and FitzGerald said his decade of driving a car without a temporary license was a “mistake,” and he has apologized.

The family’s email was greeted with lukewarm reactions by some prominent supporters.

“I always take the candidates at their word,” said Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern. “I have a 51/2-year-old; I don’t know how I would feel about life if she were ever able to face a health-care challenge. But it’s a situation where you’re often damned if you do and damned if you don’t. We can talk about letters, parking lots, driver’s licenses, but, … at some point, Ohioans will want to talk about substantive issues.”

Democratic Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said she didn’t find the FitzGeralds’ email “offensive,” but she also called it “a strong pivot” from the negative campaign news.

“I’m used to people running for office using their families as a pivot,” Whaley said.

The FitzGeralds closed their email by saying the candidate took the day off from campaigning yesterday because of a birthday in the family. On Wednesday, the day the family found out Jack FitzGerald’s test results, the candidate campaigned in Ottawa County and met with the Ohio State Troopers Association to earn its endorsement.

According to the troopers association’s account of Ed FitzGerald’s visit, posted on the association’s Facebook page and confirmed by the union’s operations manager, FitzGerald told the troopers that “he was inadvertently inattentive to securing a permanent license from a temporary driver’s license he brought with him upon arriving from Illinois,” where he had served as an FBI agent until 1998.

On records kept by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, FitzGerald indicated that he had an Ohio driver’s license or ID card that had expired in 2002.

Redfern said of FitzGerald’s explanation: “Ed told me he is a horrible procrastinator. ... He apologized profusely to me and to his family.”